Christopher Balding

Christopher Balding is an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and an associate professor at the Fulbright University Vietnam, which he joined after nine years at the HSBC Business School of Peking University Graduate School in Shenzhen, China.  An expert on the Chinese economy and financial markets, he is a Bloomberg View contributor and advises governments, central banks, and investors around the world on China.  He has appeared on Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, the BBC, CNBC, and Al-Jazeera providing insight on the Chinese economy.  Speaking regularly at universities and conferences around the world, Christopher draws upon  data knowledge and insight from his eight years living in China.

A leading expert on sovereign wealth funds, his book Sovereign Wealth Funds: The New Intersection of Money and Power published by Oxford University Press has been called an “excellent source”.  Focusing on their evolution from one simple cash management operation to giants of global finance with trillions of USD in assets under management, his book brings new insights into their history, policy motivations, success, and failures.

A polymath in academic research spans topics from international trade and finance health status of international adoptees in the United States appearing in leading international journals such as the Review of International Economics, Health Policy and Planning, the Journal of Emerging Market Finance, the International Finance Review, and the Journal of Public Economic Theory. Current working papers include research into the returns on carrying trade returns under fixed exchange rate regime with capital controls using copper as collateral to disguise capital flows and implied homicide rates of international adoptees.

He received his PhD from the University of California, Irvine and has a M.A. and a B.A. from the George Washington University and worked for many years in private equity in the United States before entering academia and moving to Asia.  He is married with two daughters and a son who have their preferred long haul carriers and lives in Ho Chi Minh City.